ATOMIK AZTEX BY SESSHU FOSTER 

City Lights, 2005; Paperback, 203 pages

Audacious, bodacious, hyperenergetic, imaginative, imagistically generous, interacting alt-realities, porous borders between eras. 

Reminded me of Philip K. Dick (The Man in the High Castle), ultraviolent voice-driven Vollmanny pyrotechnics, Ishmael Reed (Flight to Canada, Mumbo Jumbo), with mucho "Junot Diaz" spanglish, vato. 

Slaughterhouses and sacrifices. 

Really dense at times -- sometimes hard to read before bed therefore. 

A few hundred hard returns, especially in long stretches of paragraphless dialogue, would've made this more accessible without too much compromise? 

Dozens of LOLs and snickers/sounds thanks to aforementioned audacity. 

Great lists. 

Riveting battles between Aztecs and Nazis. 

Unannoyingly political, with suggestions of Mexican immigrant life in LA and American Empire. 

Really just a fantastic historical inversion, high concept that keeps the bar really high for maybe 170 of its 203 pages. 

Felt like the end sort of fizzled, keeping me from rating it the full five stars, but I may have missed something and should probably go back and investigate. 

Highly recommended to most literate human beings, especially those up for something a little challenging but wholly rewarding and inspiring. 

Winner of The Believer's 2005 Book of the Year. I remember reading about it back then and immediately forgetting about it. Don't make the same mistake I made, 'migo.

Despite the unexpectedly semianticlimatic ending (I really expected the Aztex would drop an A-bomb on the Nazis or something super-sensationalist like that), it's still the most enjoyable novel I've read in a while. 

A total mindfugg. 

*

Forever after at http://eyeshot.net/sesshufoster_atomikaztex.html